Students' winning project could aid in fight against cancer

AJ Toth and Jim Andress worked all summer and then some on their program to predict protein mutations, an award-winning project that could help in the fight against cancer.

by Donna Smith/Staff

AJ Toth and Jim Andress worked all summer and then some on their program to predict protein mutations, an award-winning project that could help in the fight against cancer.

Chris Symons in the Computational Data Analytics Group of the Computational Sciences and Engineering Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory was their mentor. Andress said they worked for eight weeks in Symon's office, seven or eight hours a day. Toth said with outside work they probably spent 400 hours on the project.

The two 18-year-olds' project won the regional competition of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology over the weekend at Georgia Institute of Technology. The win earned them a $6,000 scholarship to share and the chance to compete in the national competition Dec. 1-4 at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., for a $100,000 scholarship to share.

"In our project for the Siemens project, we made a computer program which predicts protein mutations, which can treat cancer," Toth said in a telephone interview Monday morning.

"The problem with these mutations is that there's so much data that there's no way a human can look at it and find the patterns," Andress said. They decided a machine learning algorithm could help find the important features of that data.

The high school seniors' biggest obstacle? Andress said they didn't have any machine learning background and they "had to learn what is considered state-of-the-art right now."

"In machine learning there's a lot of different techniques, theoretical ways to classify or make sense of the data," Toth said. They had to get a pretty broad view of the techniques before they choose the technique they'd use and study it more in-depth, he said.

In describing the project, "Creating a Higher-Efficiency Machine Learning Algorithm to Facilitate the Development of Cancer Treatment Drugs," a Siemens news release said the two "used novel computational procedures with active machine learning to classify certain protein mutations important cancer suppression. This classification may lead to the development of new anti-cancer drugs with lower development costs."

Toth plans to study and pursue a career in electrical engineering. He hopes to work in management and travel as much as possible. He is an Eagle Scout, National Merit Semifinalist and AP Scholar who tutors algebra and trigonometry. Toth sings in his church choir and played piano in the ETSBOA Jazz Clinic Blue Band in 2010 and 2011.

Andress is a National AP Scholar, National Merit Semifinalist, and national winner of the EnergySolutions Scholarship. He is the lead author of a paper submitted to "Computational Mechanics" on the Boundary Integral Method. He is vice president of his senior class and plays bass in the school jazz band and a local jazz trio. He plans to major in math, physics or computer science and would like to become a researcher or professor with the time and money to travel.

Toth is the son of Cathy and Bill Toth. Andress is the son of Linda and Keith Andress. Their teacher sponsors at ORHS are Jessica Williams and Tammy Carneim.

Also participating in last weekend's contest were regional semifinalists and ORHS students Kyuong-A Cho and Samantha Wang.

A meeting at which the four can present their research is being planned for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Oak Ridge High School amphitheater. The public is invited.

Donna Smith can be contacted at (865) 220-5502.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.